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Saturday 12 April 2014 - 05:28

Prime Minister Erdogan’s many scandals

Story Code : 371996
Prime Minister Erdogan’s many scandals
The municipal vote is seen as a test of strength for Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party, which has been in power since 2002.

Erdogan, who took office in 2003, has been on the political defensive since December, when police detained dozens of people close to his government as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe. In subsequent weeks, the Prime Minister dismissed thousands of police commanders as well as the prosecutors leading the investigation.

Born in a blue-collar Istanbul neighbourhood, Recep Tayyip Erdogan became modern Turkey's most powerful prime minister but is now under fire over corruption claims and an autocratic leadership style.  After 11 years at the helm, the man dubbed the "Sultan" by his loyal followers has been accused of seeking "one-man rule" and erratically lashing out at critics, from former allies to street protesters and Twitter users. 

Months of political turmoil have cast a shadow over Erdogan, who was long hailed as the leader of an emerging global player and a model Muslim democracy and oversaw a decade of unprecedented economic growth. 
 
In late February, an audio recording purported to be of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son Bilal Erdoğan discussing the purchase of several islands in the Aegean Sea off Çanakkale for $35 million was posted on YouTube by Twitter account holder Haramzadeler.

According to the recording, Bilal allegedly planned to buy four islands, located between Gökçeada and Bozcaada, for the purpose of later selling them to a Qatari company for the construction of wind power plants. In one of the conversations, Bilal is heard talking to a person, whose name in a text accompanying the clip is said to be Ahmet Murat Yelkenciler, his former schoolmate, asking him to check the prices of the islands.

One of the islands is relatively bigger than the others at 900,000 square meters while the other three are about 50,000 square meters each, Yelkenciler told Bilal. These islands have a zoning scheme defined only for tourism investments on 45 percent of their total spatial areas. Yelkenciler informed Bilal that the value of the islands will be around $35 million in total, $15 million to be paid in advance with the rest in instalments.

The videos are from an investigation into corruption and bribery, said Haramzadeler, noting that they will release these recordings and documents one by one in the face of the government's alleged move to stifle the graft probe and get rid of the evidence collected by the prosecutor of the case after a surveillance of one-and-a-half years.

In another investigation, made public on Dec. 17, the police detained 52 people including businessmen, the sons of three former ministers and several bureaucrats, all known to have close relationships with the government. A court arrested 24 of the suspects and imprisoned them. They were all subsequently released.

The leaked recording also revealed that construction company Bosporus 360, whose silent partners are reportedly Bilal and Saudi Arabian businessman Yasin al-Qadi, who is on the list of US Treasury Department's “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” was also involved in the deal.

The clip also suggested that al-Qadi's representative, Usame Kutub, is involved in the deal but doesn't provide any further details as to what his role is. It is inferred in the audio recording that there are deliberations to change the zoning plans to allow the construction of wind turbines there since it would be impossible under the current zoning plans, which does not allow any structures other than tourist facilities to be built on the islands.

Previous leaks had revealed that Prime Minister Erdoğan had helped a businessman build villas on a plot of land in İzmir's Urla district by ordering the easing of zoning restrictions there.
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